The aim of this bachelor's thesis has been to investigate surfaces that are the main contributions to scattering amplitudes in a type of string theory. These are constant mean curvature surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space. Classically the way to find such surfaces has been to solve a non-linear partial differential equation. In many spaces constant mean curvature surfaces are intimately connected to certain harmonic maps, known as the Gauss maps. In 1995 Dorfmeister, Pedit, and Wu established a method for constructing harmonic maps into so-called symmetric spaces. I investigate a generalization of this method that can be applied to find constant mean curvature surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space by using the intimate connection between these surfaces and harmonic maps. This method relies on a factorization of a Lie-group valued map. I show an explicit method for finding the factorization in terms of what is known as the Birkhoff factorization. Because approximation methods for the Birkhoff factorization are known, this allowed me to use the method constructively to find constant mean curvature surfaces in hyperbolic 3-space.

<p>In this thesis we study aspects of (0,2) superconformal field theories (SCFTs), which are suitable for compactification of the heterotic string. In the first part, we study a class of (2,2) SCFTs obtained by fibering a Landau-Ginzburg (LG) orbifold CFT over a compact K\"ahler base manifold. While such models are naturally obtained as phases in a gauged linear sigma model (GLSM), our construction is independent of such an embedding. We discuss the general properties of such theories and present a technique to study the massless spectrum of the associated heterotic compactification. We test the validity of our method by applying it to hybrid phases of GLSMs and comparing spectra among the phases. In the second part, we turn to the study of the role of accidental symmetries in two-dimensional (0,2) SCFTs obtained by RG flow from (0,2) LG theories. These accidental symmetries are ubiquitous, and, unlike in the case of (2,2) theories, their identification is key to correctly identifying the IR fixed point and its properties. We develop a number of tools that help to identify such accidental symmetries in the context of (0,2) LG models and provide a conjecture for a toric structure of the SCFT moduli space in a large class of models. In the final part, we study the stability of heterotic compactifications described by (0,2) GLSMs with respect to worldsheet instanton corrections to the space-time superpotential following the work of Beasley and Witten. We show that generic models elude the vanishing theorem proved there, and may not determine supersymmetric heterotic vacua. We then construct a subclass of GLSMs for which a vanishing theorem holds.</p> / Dissertation

In this thesis we explore the finite N spectrum of BPS operators in four-dimensional supersymmetric conformal field theories (CFT), which have dual AdS gravitational descriptions. In the first part we analyze the spectrum of chiral operators in the free limit of quiver gauge theories. We find explicit counting formulas at finite N for arbitrary quivers, construct an orthogonal basis in the free inner product, and derive the chiral ring structure constants. In order to deal with arbitrarily complicated quivers, we develop convenient diagrammatic techniques: the results are expressed by associating Young diagrams and Littlewood-Richardson coefficients to modifications of the original quiver. We develop the notion of a "quiver character", which is a generalization of the symmetric group character, obeying analogous orthogonality properties. In the second part we analyze how the BPS spectrum changes at weak coupling, focusing on the N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills. We find a formal expression for the complete set of eighth-BPS operators at finite N, and use it to derive corrections to a near-BPS operator. In the third part of this thesis we move on to the strong coupling regime, where the dual gravitational description applies. The BPS spectrum on the gravity side includes D3-branes wrapping arbitrary holomorphic surfaces, a generalization of the spherical giant gravitons. Quantizing this moduli space gives a Hilbert space, which, via duality and nonrenormalization theorems, should map to the space of BPS operators derived in the weak coupling regime. We apply techniques from fuzzy geometry to study this correspondence between D3-brane geometries, quantum states, and BPS operators in field theory.

Quiver gauge theories are widely studied in the context of AdS/CFT, which establishes a correspondence between CFTs and string theories. CFTs in turn offer a map between quantum states and Gauge Invariant Operators (GIOs). This thesis presents results on the counting and correlators of holomorphic GIOs in quiver gauge theories with flavour symmetries, in the zero coupling limit. We first give a prescription to build a basis of holomorphic matrix invariants, labelled by representation theory data. A fi nite N counting function of these GIOs is then given in terms of Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. In the large N limit, the generating function simpli fies to an in finite product of determinants, which depend only on the weighted adjacency matrix associated with the quiver. The building block of this product has a counting interpretation by itself, expressed in terms of words formed by partially commuting letters associated with closed loops in the quiver. This is a new relation between counting problems in gauge theory and the Cartier-Foata monoid. We compute the free fi eld two and three point functions of the matrix invariants. These have a non-trivial dependence on the structure of the operators and on the ranks of the gauge and flavour symmetries: our results are exact in the ranks, and their expansions contain information beyond the planar limit. We introduce a class of permutation centraliser algebras, which give a precise characterisation of the minimal set of charges needed to distinguish arbitrary matrix invariants. For the two-matrix model, the relevant non-commutative algebra is parametrised by two integers. Its Wedderburn-Artin decomposition explains the counting of restricted Schur operators. The structure of the algebra, notably its dimension, its centre and its maximally commuting sub-algebra, is related to Littlewood-Richardson numbers for composing Young diagrams.

In this thesis we exploit the setup of AdS3/CFT2 holography, and in particular the D1D5 two-dimensional CFT, to describe states dual to geometries relevant for the \fuzzball" proposal for the description of six-dimensional black hole microstates. Precise holographic dualities between CFT and bulk geometric objects are established and checked, both for 2 and 3-charge states. In particular, VEVs of CFT operators of small conformal dimension are checked to encode deviations from AdS3 geometry near the spacetime boundary. 4-point functions of the \heavy-heavy-light-light" type are also considered and matching is found between CFT and bulk computations via the usual AdS/CFT prescription, with the heavy states being dual to (simple) microstate geometries. In this context, the issue of the presence of spurious singularities at leading order in the large N limit is assessed and cancellations are found even without considering sub-leading corrections, at the cost of considering the full detail of the D1D5 CFT (i.e. including the Virasoro blocks of operators of small dimension charged under the internal SU(2)L SU(2)R R-symmetry group). Finally, more complicated 4-point functions, involving operators in the twisted sector of the CFT, are computed and the results are checked against known results in the literature with the aim of verifying the robustness of the (new) techniques used. Supersymmetric Ward identities are also derived, and checked for some cases, between correlators written in terms of bosons and in terms of fermions.

This thesis considers various extensions to the fluid/gravity correspondence as well as problems fundamental to the study of fluid dynamics. The fluid/gravity correspondence is a map between the solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid dynamics and the solutions of the Einstein equations in one higher spatial dimension. This map arose within the context of string theory and holography and is a specific realisation of a much wider class of dualities known as the Anti de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. The first chapter is an introduction; the second chapter reviews the fluid/gravity correspondence. The next two chapters extend existing work on the fluid/gravity map. Our first result concerns the fluid/gravity map for forced fluid dynamics in arbitrary spacetime dimensions. Forced fluid flows are of particular interest as they are known to demonstrate turbulent behaviour. For the case of a fluid with a dilaton-dependent forcing term, we present explicit expressions for the dual bulk metric, the fluid dynamical stress tensor and Lagrangian to second order in boundary spacetime derivatives. Our second result concerns fluid flows with multiple anomalous currents in the presence of external electromagnetic fields. It has recently been shown using thermodynamic arguments that the entropy current for such anomalous fluids contains additional first order terms proportional to the vorticity and magnetic field. Using the fluid/gravity map, we replicate this result using gravitational methods. The final two chapters consider questions related to the equations of fluid dynamics themselves; these chapters do not involve the fluid/gravity correspondence. The first of these chapters is a review of the various constraints that must be satisfied by the transport coefficients. In the final chapter, we derive the constraints obtained by requiring that the equilibrium fluid configurations are linearly stable to small perturbations. The inequalities that we obtain here are slightly weaker than those found by demanding that the divergence of the entropy current is non-negative.

In the further development of the string theory, one needs to understand 3 or 4-dimensional volume minimizing subvarieties in 7 or 8-dimensional manifolds. As one example, one would like to understand 4-dimensional volume minimizing cycles in a torus T8. The Cayley calibration form can be used to find all volume minimizing cycles in each homology class of T8. In order to apply the Cayley form to 8-dimensional tori, we need to understand the finite symmetry of the Cayley form, which has a continuous symmetry group Spin(7). We have found one finite symmetry group of order eight generated by three elements. We have also studied the symmetry groups of tori based on the results of H.S.M. Coxeter, and have had a simple description of the four crystallographic groups in O(8). They can be used to classify all finite symmetry groups of the Cayley form.

We determine several families of so-called associative 3-dimensional manifolds in R7. Such manifolds are of interest because associative 3-cycles in G2 holonomy manifolds such as R6 × S1, whose universal cover is R7, are candidates for representations of fundamental particles in String Theory. We apply the classic results of Harvey and Lawson to find 3-manifolds which are graphs of functions f : Im H → H and which are invariant under a particular 1-parameter subgroup of G2, the automorphism group of the Cayley numbers, O. Systems of PDEs are derived and solved, some special cases of a classic theorem of Harvey and Lawson are investigated, and theorems aiding in the classification of all such manifolds described here are proven. It is found that in most of the cases examined, the resulting manifold must be of the form of the graph of a holomorphic function crossed with R. However, some examples of other types of graphs are also found.

The concept of faster than light travel in general relativity is examined, starting with a review of the Alcubierre metric. This spacetime, although incredible in its implications, has certain unavoidable problems which are discussed in detail. It is demonstrated that in order to describe faster than light travel without any ambiguities, a coordinate independent description is much more convenient. An alternative method of describing superluminal travel is then proposed, which has similarities to the Krasnikov tube.

We discuss the target space pseudoduality in supersymmetric sigma models on symmetric spaces. We first consider the case where sigma models based on real compact connected Lie groups of the same dimensionality and give examples using three dimensional models on target spaces. We show explicit construction of nonlocal conserved currents on the pseudodual manifold. We then switch the Lie group valued pseudoduality equations to Lie algebra valued ones, which leads to an infinite number of pseudoduality equations. We obtain an infinite number of conserved currents on the tangent bundle of the pseudodual manifold. Since pseudoduality imposes the condition that sigma models pseudodual to each other are based on symmetric spaces with opposite curvatures (i.e. dual symmetric spaces), we investigate pseudoduality transformation on the symmetric space sigma models in the third chapter. We see that there can be mixing of decomposed spaces with each other, which leads to mixings of the following expressions. We obtain the pseudodual conserved currents which are viewed as the orthonormal frame on the pullback bundle of the tangent space of G tilde which is the Lie group on which the pseudodual model based. Hence we obtain the mixing forms of curvature relations and one loop renormalization group beta function by means of these currents. In chapter four, we generalize the classical construction of pseudoduality transformation to supersymmetric case. We perform this both by component expansion method on manifold M and by orthonormal coframe method on manifold SO(M). The component method produces the result that pseudoduality tranformation is not invertible at all points and occurs from all points on one manifold to only one point where riemann normal coordinates valid on the second manifold. Torsion of the sigma model on M must vanish while it is nonvanishing on M tilde, and curvatures of the manifolds must be constant and the same because of anticommuting grassmann numbers. We obtain the similar results with the classical case in orthonormal coframe method. In case of super WZW sigma models pseudoduality equations result in three different pseudoduality conditions; flat space, chiral and antichiral pseudoduality. Finally we study the pseudoduality tansformations on symmetric spaces using two different methods again. These two methods yield similar results to the classical cases with the exception that commuting bracket relations in classical case turns out to be anticommuting ones because of the appearance of grassmann numbers. It is understood that constraint relations in case of non-mixing pseudoduality are the remnants of mixing pseudoduality. Once mixing terms are included in the pseudoduality the constraint relations disappear.